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I got nominated by my dear friend Larissa Dalton Stephanoff at pilotingpaperairplanes.com for the Liebster award. Thanks Larissa! The award is to help people discover other great blogs and get people sharing. I’m suppose to answer 11 questions from my … Continue reading →

Todays post is short because I have something really fun that I would rather you WATCH. It’s my book trailer for The Dove: Book One of the Legend. It was a lot of fun to dream up and a lot … Continue reading →

The Columbia Missourian’s VOX Magazine wrote a piece on self–publishing…. and I’m in it! (Re–blogged from www.voxmagazine.com) EBook will be available on my website this week!! Columbia authors self-publish their work Writers pen, publish and publicize on their own By Jessica Puckett October … Continue reading →

So I have this thing about bragging, it seems really weird to me and I never do it BUT since I wasn’t the one in front of the camera in 50 degree weather wearing hardly anything, I’m going to do it now. My book trailer filming this weekend went freakin AWESOME thanks to my cast! I was in frantic search (and I mean desperate, begging people mode) the night before. I still needed a tall, buff guy to be one of my warriors, and a helper or two but didn’t find anyone. The weather forecast was to be a high of 50 degrees and mostly cloudy with a chance of showers, not ideal at all.

My videographer/director was to meet me after work to go over supplies and deliver the film trailer with all the equipment. I race after work stopping to get gas, the pump stopped at $55.55 coincidence or sign that disaster was in the air? Trust me, this thought was a permanent fixture in my head the days following the shoot. I arrive on location to meet the videographer but he did not show up because his truck couldn’t pull his trailer and he turned back after I was already on location 45 minutes away. So, no run through of supplies like we scheduled. (This was followed by him backing his trailer into his house). Bad luck was oozing from the air!

I went to bed with nightmares and a headache wondering if I should call everyone and move the filming to Sunday instead. My gut said ‘no its going to be awesome just stay the course!’ So we did. The result?

I love making movies!

Well you’ll have to wait seven weeks from now when the finished product is released. But in the mean time here are some pictures from the day.

My frozen girls in-between takes.

My devoted cast was perfect, it was freezing cold, but no one complained. It was hard, but no one complained. I begged and tried to recruit people the days before with no avail, but these people willingly went where no one else wanted to go.These people rock–> Tai Hines, Lindsey Smith, Nathalia Mello, Ryan Voight, Adam Voight, Bo Wendleton and Dale Kempf. Oh and while I’m bragging, I need to mention my mom made all these costumes by hand and provided childcare for the day:)

Enough said.

Pure talent at its finest.

The moral of this weekend is no matter your bad luck, if you have perseverance and creativity, things will turn out awesome:) The book trailer is to be released November 21, 2012 so please be sure to check back and see how it all comes together!

Stress makes for exciting times! Here I am standing on campus trying to recruit a last-minute missing link in my chain of actors for Saturdays book trailer filming. My back up to my back up fell through, and I’ve contacted six potential back ups to those back ups and have fallen short each time. As I get more desperate I find I’m willing to stoop to new lows. Here I am with my student designer Chrissy, she is making the face that I feel inside. We are standing outside the Rec center trying to recruit the last guy. Unfortunately, we only had 20 minutes to stand there and in that 20 minutes only a hand full of mostly females walked by. We got some laughs, got some looks but that’s about it. One girl stopped and said she knew a Taylor Lautner look-alike so I exuberantly handed out my number but have yet to have any calls. Call me Taylor Lautner look-alike!

I don’t know why actor searching is so difficult, I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone to ask me to be in a movie. Perhaps I will try the sign at Walmart and see what I get – okay never mind that’s taking it too far! Or is it? Well this blog is mostly about the struggles of self-publishing and though this is not a wildly informative or intriguing post it is head on the topic today. The show must go on even if it is horrible weather, one bear warrior and a couple of helpers short.

Well I’m totally excited to be exactly one month away from film day! Yesterday evening was spent road tripping to potential film sites to scope out any hurdles and decide on the best location. For The Dove trailer I can’t have any power lines, houses or representation of modern-day civilization so it will be some tricky camera work. The trailer will only end up being 2-3 minutes long but will require a full day of filming (I hope no more) and many editing hours. For anyone thinking of making their own trailer I will pass along the “shopping list” you will need based on what I’ve found for mine.

1. 90MB/s 32G CF Card. You may not need one this large or fast but I’m shooting a lot of slow motion and that requires a fast card. $90-$120

2. 1 terabyte external hard drive. This is so you can download all the files to the hard drive and keep them safe while on site. $90+

3. Chroma key green backdrop sheet. I’m filming a dust storm and need to add it in later in After Effects so I don’t have to piss off my actors with making them stand in front of high-powered fans blowing dirt on them. You may not need a green screen if you aren’t needing to add anything later.These vary in price depending on size $40-70

4. Costumes. $0-? My lovely mother is a costume making master and has graciously taken on this task-hope you can get your mom to help as well. In addition to costumes, you need to provide your actors a details sheet of what you want them to come looking like the day of the shoot. For example, I need mine to be nail polish, jewelry, and makeup free. I also need them to all be tan and have dark, straightened hair.

5. Food and drinks for the duration of the shoot for everyone involved. Price will vary.

6. Bathroom facility. This will be tricky for me as we are headed to the backwoods of Boonville, MO.

7. Camera(s), microphone, boom, lights, reflectors. I am hiring a cameraman that comes will all this equipment. If you’re not highly educated in the area of filming it is a good idea to just hire someone who is, it will save you time and money in the end and you will have a better looking trailer for it. $500-2000+

8. Helpers (many of them). If they have any filming background and or take orders well- the better. $0-?

9. Actors. These are the most important part I think. They devote their time for little to no money so you need to keep them happy. Have some kind of thank you gift prepared for them after the shoot. $0-?

10. Transportation. You shouldn’t expect your actors to convoy all over the place on film day. I suggest having one central meeting location and taking everyone in one or two cars to keep everyone together and not make your actors spend their gas for your film.

11. Props. Think of everything ahead of time. For example, if there is a frog jumping in your scene don’t expect to catch a live one on location the day of (you won’t, and you will waste time). I suggest finding a realistic looking faux one that way you can shoot the scene over again and it won’t escape.

14. Good Weather. This is in Gods hands so it is WISE to go ahead and set a backup shoot day in case of bad weather (especially if you’re filming outdoors).

15. Editing ability. Once everything is shot you need to either know how to edit it yourself or have someone ready to do it for you. It’s a good idea to figure this out before you start shooting so you can discuss challenges in the shots you are wanting and hear their ideas about shot sequence.

Hmmm, am I forgetting anything? I think that is the majority of the needs. Obviously every trailer is different and you will need to plan out your needs accordingly. Planning is your best friend, try to think of EVERYTHING, be prepared for ANYTHING. The more you can plan ahead the less amount of time-consuming and unexpected surprises will happen in the end. I’m still in the planning stage so I may add to this later but hopefully this helps anyone thinking of making their own book trailer. If anyone has any other advice please comment, I’m sure I’m forgetting things. May your filming be a success and your editing quick and easy, ha!

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I am a graphic and interior designer by day and by night I am a cook, maid, storyteller and bath maker for my amazing 3–year–old. With whatever time is left I am an artist and writer. I just self-published my first novel The Dove: Book One of the Legend and am working on the second of the five part series.